


Not As Expected

by Affirmed



Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-31 02:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12666003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Affirmed/pseuds/Affirmed
Summary: Remember in Voyager when Jamie roars at Claire, "You LEFT me?" More than the magic stones, incredible coincidences and Jamie's nine lives, that was the one point of the story I could never believe - that she would just blithely abandon him.





	Not As Expected

“Sassenach!” Jamie’s eyes creaked opened at long last and fixed dazedly upon her, peculiarly-hued lashes only slightly obscuring the underlying hazy blue. “I did hope to see you again, though I dinna expect ‘t would be afore my death.”

Claire ignored the fierce stab of raw panic prompted by the prospect he mentioned, set her jaw and attempted to channel a sufficiently-authoritative tone. “You’re not dying on me, Jamie Fraser.”

“Och, I expect I am.” Jamie’s eyes eased shut and she would have assumed him adrift on a memory or perhaps a dream but for his continuing words. “Don’t you always see the one thing you want most just afore you go?”

“ _No_ ,” she stated firmly, reaching up to pat him roughly on his right cheek. The motion must have either jarred his broken nose or thrust him unceremoniously from the soft embrace of sleep, because he immediately jolted and raised his head an inch, eyes flying wide.

“You’re real?” he croaked, voice flicking with disuse or the continual encroachment of pain.

“Of course I’m real!” She huffed, beginning to cautiously peel away the vestiges of his breeks and wondering if she shouldn’t just slice them off.

“But – you were supposed to -”

“Oh, and you think you can just cast me away and I’ll blindly obey?” She sniped, deciding on two knife cuts to usher away the offending fabric.

The enormous gouge in his upper thigh concerned her to no end. Though certainly stitches and forced immobility would enable the flesh to sew itself back together, she could scarcely imagine what manner of intruding particles had found their way into the gaping maw, what had been jostled into it on the long ride home, or what awful preexisting germs had lined the precipitating weapon prior to it slicing through his precious flesh. How in the world would she combat the almost certain prospect of infection and ensuing blood poisoning? Perhaps she _should_ have taken a detour through the stones, she thought ruefully, if only to retrieve a supply of penicillin. Of course, there was no guarantee she would arrive in her own time, if she had, and a similarly unlikely chance she would return precisely to Jamie’s upon her return. Plus, she would have offered the universe two prime opportunities to condemn her to a life of aimless screaming, trapped inside the stones, summarily deprived of both her beloved and her former existence.

“Aye, it would be a first.” Jamie’s eyes remained fixed on her, scarcely blinking, and after a moment she felt his left hand on her arm, thumb stroking lightly against her skin. “I am verra glad to see y-” he trailed off with a hiss as I prodded the wound lightly, attempting to determine the extent of the damage.

“Sorry,” she cringed inadvertently, her nurse’s stoicism punctured neatly by the identity of her patient. “What caused this, do you know?”

“Bayonet.” He spat the word, almost as though by sheer force of verbal will he could retroactively edit the occurrence.

_Goodness._ “I’m so sorry, Jamie,” I swallowed with genuine regret. “We’re going to have to clean this. It won’t be pleasant.”

“I expect not,” he remarked casually. “No worse than dying and having to go on without you, though.”

Despite the gravity of the situation and the markedly uncomfortable medical procedure that awaited us, I felt my lips pull into a smile. “I expect not.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a derivative work and I make no assertions of ownership toward any of the original characters, etc... if I could, Claire (a) never would have abandoned Jamie, and/or (b) would have started researching his fate immediately upon returning to her time. (Much as I love the two main characters, the rest of the series frustrates me to no end.) Thank you for reading! I hope it offered a pleasant (if brief) diversion from your regularly-scheduled existence. (:


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